“America’s Got Talent” judge and new vegan Simon Cowell wants to end the dog meat trade. The star recently donated £25,000 to help shut down a South Korean dog meat farm.
Cowell’s donation went to Humane Society International (HSI) in an effort to rescue 200 dogs currently on a South Korean dog meat farm.
30 million dogs are killed every year for meat.
South Korea’s Dog Meat Trade
“Simon’s generous donation means the world to us, and provides a huge boost to our appeal to close this horrendous dog meat farm,” HSI UK Executive Director Claire Bass said in a statement. “More than 200 dogs are languishing in the most appalling conditions, but we have a real chance to save them. … These poor dogs have had the worst lives so far, so we’re desperate to get them out of those dreadful cages and show them love, soft beds and loving arms for the first time in their lives.”
HSI will relocate the rescue dogs to homes in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.
According to HSI, about 30 million dogs are killed every year for meat in China, South Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
“Upwards of 2 million dogs on thousands of [South Korean] farms are kept in small, barren, filthy cages, exposed to the elements and given little food and no water,” HSI notes. “Many suffer from disease and malnutrition and all are subjected to daily, extreme neglect. The methods used to kill the dogs are brutal—electrocution is most common.”
Simon Cowell Goes Vegan
Cowell has been a vocal critic of the dog meat trade. In 2017 he supported the #EndDogMeat campaign, and last year he joined 90 celebrities in a petition calling for the end of Indonesia’s dog meat industry.
And, the star told the Sun recently that it had another benefit: “If I was on a one to ten scale of being handsome, I was an eight and now I’ve gone to an 11.”
